


Heed the Raven

by Merfilly



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Other, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 22:18:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4582200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phillip is instructed in the nature of affairs by a raven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heed the Raven

Phillip was not expecting to be met upon the narrow passage within the Moors that allowed approach to Maleficent's great tree. Yet as he turned a corner, there was the unmistakable form of Diaval in his human guise, purposefully in the path of Phillip's charger.

"I've come to find Aurora," Phillip said, not allowing memory of the darkness to intrude. The Moors were bright and fair now, a haven of innocence that suited his need to find the good around him.

"So I reasoned upon spying you afar, Prince Phillip," Diaval answered. "I promise you, you wish to go no further on your quest this day."

Phillip wasn't accustomed to being balked, but he also wasn't given to tempers, so he merely smiled and focused on this momentary obstacle. "But I wish to see my betrothed."

Diaval gave a smile of his own, lips closed -- for he was no dog baring teeth -- and answered. "I assure you, the Queen is most occupied at this moment, and likely to be so for some time yet. Nor would I, were I you, seek to intrude upon her."

"I do not understand; the Lady Maleficent gave me to understand I am welcome in her realm, and I wish Aurora to know I have returned from my father," Phillip persisted. The ensorcelled avian turned his eyes briefly upwards, the thought of 'what do humans even teach to hatchlings?' blatantly writ across his features.

"Do let your steed go, Prince Phillip," Diaval began, "and walk with me away from the tree so that I might find your human words for the situation you exist within now."

Phillip looked puzzled, but he knew his horse would not wander far, and speaking with Diaval was, it seemed, his best chance to understand why he was being kept from his betrothed. He dismounted, careful to gather the reins so that they would not catch on anything and entangle the beast. "Go, Samson, and come when I call." That tended to, the prince fell in step with the raven-haired servant of the Moors' protectress.

"Prince Phillip, you have been granted the right of eventual consortship with my Queen Aurora," Diaval began, his steps short but quick, leading the curious human further from where the women were safe within the high bower of the tree. "But while there is affection, there is a lack of knowing one another… intimately." The raven-minded man looked to see if his companion had begun to understand the delicacy of the situation, and was met with an uneasy yet uncomprehending look. 

"In~intimacy is something for after marriage, yes?" Phillip said, stumbling a little over the words, attempting to reach an understanding, even as color touched his cheeks at the blunt speech.

"Marriage is completely for convenience among the denizens of the Moors," Diaval said bluntly. "For we are all creatures of passion and kinship. What you will have with Aurora is tempered now in affection... yet you each represent your inheritances, and this could lead to strife, Prince Phillip. The marriage, as written within the betrothal treaty, is of convenience. Do you see it as more? For the 'more' is the intimacy that should be built now."

The human struggled to reach an answer for the raven-born seneschal of the Moors. How could the nature of his relationship to Aurora, once they were wed, possibly relate to why he could not see her now? "I wish for it to be, as I find time spent with Aurora to be a dear treasure, and wish it to grow into the truest wealth we may hold," he answered.

Diaval managed -- barely, to be sure -- to not roll his eyes again. He even prevented the instinctive mantling motion of his shoulders, because even as sickly sweet as that speech was, it played into all of his own wishes for Aurora to be cherished as her due. "Your marriage is not for some time, and there are other pulls upon my Queen's heart," he told the prince. "She is fond of you, and understands the need for the union. I know she wishes to grow to know you, for she has said such in my presence. Yet, she is blossoming within her heart now, to use one of the pixie phrasings."

"Bloss—" Phillip's head jerked back toward the tree, before his head came back to Diaval's knowing face. "But…"

"Are you a man of jealousy, or a man of worth, Prince Phillip, for you are about to tread upon my loyalties, depending on your next words," Maleficent's friend and servant told the human. His keen eyes never left the face of this human, whom Aurora needed, and even loved, but who was so new to her life.

Phillip's mind cascaded over his admittedly short association with his betrothed, recalling how he failed to bring her out of enchantment, yet Maleficent had succeeded without even a breath of a hope of doing so. This he had learned after all was said and done. "I thought it was love of a child," he whispered. 

"The faerie have different methods to their hearts, Prince Phillip. There is merely love, in this case, that grew in spite of the circumstances that brought two hearts together." Diaval tilted his head in a distinctly avian fashion. "Where does your heart fall?"

"To my duty," Phillip replied swiftly to buy time against what he was thinking. He didn't know Aurora, not at all, despite his assistance to her in organizing the human kingdom. She was a mystery and it enchanted him beyond reason, so was that what he was in love with?

"If all you are is duty, does that mean Aurora is only a prize to your ambition?" Diaval asked coldly, to be rewarded by the snap of fire in Phillip's eyes, the tension of his body moving toward a lunge. "No, you care. And I ask of you, as her servant, for my loyalty belongs to her as much as to my Mistress, to let this grow as a piece of Aurora of the Moors, and accept that you will have Aurora the Queen."

Phillip looked away for a long time, not toward the human lands, but over the beauty of the Moors, letting its peace infuse him once more. Could he ignore that which Aurora did in these lands? Could he be a dutiful consort to her, and refuse to know that her heart belonged…

No. It did not belong to anyone but Aurora herself, even as each person's heart did. One chose to give loyalty to those who earned it, or deserved it. One could love in many ways, such as his love for his parents versus his love for companions of his childhood.

He faced Diaval, understanding something more of this magical life he had been thrust into. "I will love her. And she may love me. For the heart is not something to be measured, is it, Diaval? It is as boundless as the very air around us, and no more able to be full than our minds can cease to learn new things, so long as we wish it, yes?"

The shape-changed man gave that tight smile, his eyes warm, as he did his particular bow, cloak flaring out as he did so in mimicry of the wings he currently lacked.

"My Prince has wisdom beyond his youth," Diaval answered, hearing as Phillip's breath caught for the first utterance of fealty in those words.

"I will endeavor to use it wisely… friend?"

The dark head tipped to the other side, considering, and then his eyes crinkled in merriment. "Perhaps." He indicated the Moors' wilder spaces with a flourish. "Allow me to do my duty, and distract you with adventure as befits a prince?" he invited, consciously using the tone he had heard in humans he watched, the one akin to his dance for the ravens he had courted. He was rewarded with an innocent blush, but Phillip nodded his agreement. 

They had three kingdoms between them in the balance, and Diaval could only see good coming of learning the compassion and care needed to handle the delicacies of their hearts before the weight of ruling pressed in too fully.


End file.
